About the Department of Neuroscience

Dr. Azevedo’s Laboratory seeks to understand how emotional experiences, such as trauma or reward, are processed and integrated in the brain. Our main goal is to determine the circuit, cellular and molecular mechanisms by which emotions control behavior and physiology. Ultimately, we aim to understand and define novel molecular targets involved in psychiatric diseases, such as Eating Disorders, PTSD, and Anxiety. Using the mouse limbic system as our primary model, our laboratory employs a combination of behavioral, molecular, anatomical, and imaging tools.

Dr. Becker's overall research focus is directed at elucidating neurobiological mechanisms and environmental factors underlying the addictive effects of alcohol, including adaptive changes resulting from chronic alcohol exposure that play a role in promoting excessive alcohol consumption and enhanced relapse vulnerability.

Dr. Berto aims to elucidate the molecular signaling pathways involved in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and brain evolution. His lab's research focuses on identifying novel genes and signaling pathways implicated in brain disorders, utilizing studies on transcription and splicing factors, as well as employing comparative genomics and other computational approaches. His primary cancer research interest is applying advanced genomic and computational approaches to uncover the molecular mechanisms that drive tumor development, progression, and therapeutic response.

Dr Bharioke did his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, graduating with a double major in Biochemistry and Chemical Physics (focusing on theoretical quantum mechanics) and a minor in Mathematics. With an interest in understanding how brains perform computations, he did his PhD under Mitya Chklovskii and Simon Laughlin, jointly between the University of Cambridge and HHMI's Janelia Research Campus. He worked on identifying theoretically-driven structure-function relationships in the Drosophila visual connectome.

For his postdoctoral work, he transitioned to working in the more complex circuitry of the mouse cortex, working with Botond Roska in Basel, Switzerland. He focused on understanding how cortical circuits change their activity both during early development, and during the cognitive state changes associated with the loss of consciousness. To answer these questions, he learned to perform two-photon imaging and also developed a novel method to record form embryonic mouse neurons, in vivo. Now, in Charleston, his lab will be combining optical methods to interrogate circuits with computational modelling and simulations, to build a holistic understanding of how cortical circuits form, respond to changes, and generate cognitive functions.

Dr. Lopez's research interests are the effect of stress and other environmental factors on alcohol intake and relapse, and the role of learning in the development of addictive behaviors. He is conducting studies to evaluate the effect of stress at different developmental stages on voluntary alcohol intake. Dr. Lopez conducts behavioral pharmacology studies utilizing numerous rodent models of alcohol exposure. This includes studying alcohol dependence and relapse drinking involving a mouse model of chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure that produces escalation of drinking. This model has been used to characterize genetic, neurobiological, and behavioral (motivational) factors that influence alcohol self-administration including measures of relapse, tolerance, and behavioral flexibility.

Dr. Mulholland studies neuroadaptations induced by in-vivo and in-vitro models of chronic alcohol exposure and repeated stress experiences.

The Otis Lab is interested in the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie reward-seeking behaviors. This includes behaviors that are adaptive such as foraging, and those that are maladaptive such as drug seeking. To study this phenomenon, we use an array of custom mouse behavioral assays along with cutting-edge neuro-technologies, including optogenetics, two-photon microscopy, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and more. By using, combining, and developing these technologies, we are able to answer questions in the most powerful and informative way currently possible, providing unprecedented insight into the neurobiological mechanisms of reward-seeking behaviors.

The Rinker Lab is a preclinical, basic science lab that explores the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie alcohol dependence and stress-related disorders using a murine model of excessive alcohol consumption that emulates aspects of this human medical condition of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The lab has several main projects that focus on stress system dysregulation in alcohol dependence, cortical mechanisms of excessive alcohol drinking, and thalamic regulation of reward seeking. We utilize in vivo calcium imaging to track neural activity during alcohol drinking and behavioral tasks, as well as chemo- and optogenetic approaches to manipulate neural activity, and basic wet lab techniques, like immunohistochemistry, western immunoblotting, and slice electrophysiology. The overall goal of the lab is to help understand the etiology of AUD and identify new pharmacotherapeutics targets for drug development.

My overall research focuses on studying the origin of childhood brain cancers during the early development of the brain, identifying the abnormal genetic changes leading to those cancers and thereby uncovering therapeutic opportunities.